


Postcards from Vienna (and Lima)

by Fabrisse



Series: Vienna [5]
Category: Glee
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-13
Updated: 2011-04-13
Packaged: 2017-10-18 00:27:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/182975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fabrisse/pseuds/Fabrisse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is how they communicate when they're apart for six weeks.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Postcards from Vienna (and Lima)

The first postcard was the only one delivered to Hummel's Tires and Lube. Blaine's plane took off for DC at 11:30, and that was about the time the mail arrived. It was of Dalton Academy, and the note just said "Wish we were there."

***   
Kurt had asked for a postcard a week. By the time Blaine emailed him with the correct address to send things to him in Vienna, he'd already received three. There was one of Dulles Airport and one of an Austrian Airlines plane.

As soon as he had the address, Kurt sent Blaine a postcard of Lima's mall. It said, "Sadly, I'm here."

***   
It wasn't just postcards. Blaine sent him at least one email a day, and they worked out a Skype schedule as well, although, Blaine's roommate had kept it from being either daily or at an easy time for Kurt.

But it was the postcards that Kurt kept coming back to. Some ended up on the refrigerator, but most were upstairs in a stack by his bed. The notes were minimal since anyone picking up the mail could read them, but the pictures Blaine chose were clearly things that had struck him or reminded him of Kurt. Even the ones of churches, and Vienna clearly had many, many churches, had points of interest for Kurt -- whether it was a particularly snooty looking gargoyle at St. Stephen's Cathedral or the trompe l'oeil of the dome at Karlskirche.

And then there were the letters. Kurt got the first one the Tuesday after Blaine left. It was thick and had a huge stamp on it. Blaine had written at least a paragraph each day with Saturday morning, before he rushed to the post office to mail it, the part of the letter that was the longest. Most of it gave a shape to his week, his days. There were language classes in the morning, individual music lessons twice a week after the first break, small group lessons -- Blaine had been assigned to a string quartet -- on the other three days, followed by lunch, two hours of orchestra four days a week, and another hour and a half of language lessons. They'd be done by four pm, except on Wednesdays when they had the afternoons free. There were tickets to evening performances available, and they could sign up to join in group tours of the city and its sights. Blaine had been to a Strauss operetta on Friday night, and was on his way to spend the day at Schonbrunn after he dropped his letter in the box.

The last page of the letter was separate, with no crossings out. It just said To Kurt across the top of the page and underneath, in Blaine's most careful handwriting, was a bit of blank verse:

 _I walk alone through a foreign city.  
I feel your presence over my shoulder,  
A quiet ghost who loves the experience  
And comments on the gilt decor_

 _I feel your absence in cups of coffee  
Drunk alone, or mornings when I wake up  
Cold, with empty arms and lips unkissed._

Kurt read it through as soon as he got home from work and then told his dad and Carole that he'd be out for the evening. He spent time at a stationery shop finding the perfect letter sheets, matching envelopes, and a fountain pen with an extra fine nib. Then he came home and answered every single question Blaine had asked him.

He spent the rest of the week adding his own notes about his days, about his summer reading, about how much he missed Blaine. The flow of the ink onto the thick paper made him think about his words, and Kurt found himself sharing parts of him that he never had before. He was amazed at how easy it was to write love letters.

***   
The emails were short, but frequent, and often included audio or video recordings of the work Blaine was doing. Kurt had known that Blaine played violin because he'd seen the instrument in his room. Hearing him was new, and the little snippets he got of string quartet rehearsals or private lessons were fascinating.

One day, he got an email with two avi's attached. The first one was Blaine playing a piece that the title said was _Sunrise_ by Haydn with an instructor accompanying him on the piano. There was a little bit of discussion at the end which made Kurt wish he spoke German rather than French, and then Blaine grinned and the piece cut off. He clicked the second one and Blaine's grin was there as he put the violin back in place and played some jazz. The instructor laughed and joined in and, to Kurt's ear, the two of them cutting loose on _I Got Rhythm_ sounded even better than the formal classical piece he'd played before.

The email read:

 _Kurt --_

 _Violins have to be played or they lose their tone. This school owns some really expensive, unique instruments -- they're letting me play one of the school's Stradivarius violins in the concert because Gershwin needs a bright sound._

 _I really prefer the richer tones of a del Gesu -- they're even rarer than Strads because del Gesu didn't live as long. Anyway, the school lets the students play the historic instruments in order to keep the instruments in tune and to let the students hear how a great instrument can improve even someone like me. Today, I got the del Gesu, and I just had to share. It's a beautiful instrument with a great tone._

 _Hope you liked the concert._

 _Love,_

 _Blaine_

In return, Kurt recorded some of the work he and his dad were doing restoring a 1961 Thunderbird convertible as a graduation present for Finn. They were still in the earliest stages of the restoration, but it was a way to share his day with Blaine.

 

***   
There were gifts. A cookbook arrived for Carole after she had Kurt ask what exotic foods Blaine was eating. Blaine sent t-shirts with Austrian beer brands on them for Finn because he thought Finn might like them. He was right.

And one Wednesday, there was a small package for Kurt. It contained a mini DVD and that night on Skype he asked Blaine what was on it.

"Play it and see."

"Our DVD player doesn't take the little discs and neither does my computer. Lauren Zises said she could help me out, but she wants to see what's on it."

Blaine grinned. "There's nothing I'm embarrassed to have your friends see."

Kurt raised an eyebrow. "Since I've noticed you have certain, shall we say, exhibitionist tendencies, I'm not reassured."

"It's tourist stuff," Blaine said. "It's just a little more organized than usual."

The following Saturday, Lauren came over and set up the adapter for the playback. Half of New Directions seemed to have accompanied her, and everyone settled in to watch much to Kurt's dismay.

Whatever he might have feared, Kurt's jaw dropped when the camera panned over a familiar landscape and he heard Blaine's voice say, "Welcome to Salzburg."

The recording had been made over a four day period. Blaine's group of students had gone to Salzburg to do research -- they still had language classes every morning at the hotel and instruction on their instruments with local teachers -- and spent their afternoons exploring the city. Blaine had found most of the major landmarks from _The Sound of Music_ and he and Heike, one of his classmates, had filmed them for Kurt, filling him in on the history of the city and the sights themselves.

(Blaine turned the camera on Heike at one point and she said, "Kurt, I've heard you sing. You should have come, too. The world needs more countertenors.")

He also talked about Mozart and his relationship with Salzburg including the famous Marionettentheater. "It's not like the ones in the movie. Those were an American troupe of puppeteers, but these are remarkable. The theater started about a hundred years ago, but it carries on traditions that originated in the eighteenth century. Last night, we saw them perform Magic Flute. The gestures are so specific that you forget the faces can't move."

There was a cut, and Blaine switched to first person point of view, occasionally turning the camera to show himself talking, in Vienna. He showed Kurt his favorite konditorei, several buildings that he loved from different eras, and even took a car on the Ferris wheel at the Prater. The whole disc ran about forty minutes. At the very end, Blaine turned the camera on himself and said, "I miss you every day. I love you, Angel."

Rachel and Mercedes squeed in delight. Puck and Lauren just looked at Kurt and said, "Dude."

Kurt knew he was blushing -- and he could feel a few tears pricking at his eyes -- but it really had been such a sweet gesture that he couldn't be angry at Blaine for not warning him.

There was a knock at the door. The UPS guy waited for Finn to sign it before handing over the box.

"I didn't even know they delivered on Saturday," he said. "It's for you."

Kurt took it from him and opened the package. He peeled back the paper and saw an exquisite marionette in formal eighteenth century attire holding a rose.

The note read: _Sometimes they retire a production. This character's look reminded me of you. It's Octavian from_ Der Rosenkavalier _by Richard Strauss._

Mercedes read the note over his shoulder and then looked at the puppet. "You know, it does kind of remind me of the outfit you wore for _Bad Romance_."

Kurt laughed.

***   
Blaine's plane was due to land very late on Sunday night. Kurt wanted to be at the airport waiting, but between Blaine's family not liking him and Burt worrying about him on the roads so late at night, he decided it was better to stick to the plans he and Blaine had made on Skype. As soon as Kurt was finished at the shop on Monday, he'd head to the Lima Bean to meet Blaine.

He was really surprised to see Blaine's Mini convertible pull into the shop at lunchtime. All he could do was run into his boyfriend's arms and kiss him.

**Author's Note:**

>  _Author notes: I don't like Mozart much (well, other than the Queen of the Night's Aria from Zauberflote) which is heresy in Austria. So, I have Blaine doing string quartets by Haydn. In my head, his reward for getting the string quartet piece right on the del Gesu was[I Got Rhythm](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QATbLYxBtjA) in the style of Stephane Grappelli._


End file.
